Mission

McCain Library is both a knowledge space and a gateway to resources and services. The Library’s mission is to support and enrich the educational program of Agnes Scott College, contributing to graduating students capable of finding, evaluating, and synthesizing information. 

Further, McCain Library staff believe strongly in the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion and the benefits of working in environments that foster and honor a wide array of perspectives, thought, and experiences. We are committed to overcoming cultural, historical, and divisive biases, recognizing the importance that diverse perspectives bring to our society. As a result, we strive to eliminate barriers to services, spaces, resources, and scholarship within McCain Library.

To that end, McCain Library’s broad goals are to:

1. Engage in the curriculum that teaches members of the ASC community to be critical and efficient users of information and research resources, wherever SUMMIT may take them.
2. Be a physical and virtual user-centered environment to meet the curricular, research, and study needs of ASC students, faculty, and staff, and to assure convenient, timely, and user-friendly access.
3. Provide appropriate collections and technology for undergraduate and graduate curricular support.
4. Maintain high user satisfaction levels with library collections, environment, and services, and compare favorably against peer benchmarks.
5. Raise our awareness of the importance of and opportunities provided by creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace and community space, recognizing that this endeavor requires an ongoing commitment of effort.
6. Facilitate the development and continuous improvement of processes and procedures that are hallmarks of culturally competent libraries.
7. Regularly audit and assess our spaces and programs to determine levels of inclusivity and make needed adjustments.
8. Actively build our collections, especially the Shuronda Gardner Smith Collection, and how we describe and make them available, to foster diversity and inclusivity.
9. Create programming that expands opportunities for underrepresented communities to participate in the learning environment of McCain Library.
10. Partner with campus faculty, staff, and groups to support and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.

(Adapted from the Oberlin Group Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)

rev. September 2019